WOTY Weapons

[Dave Wilton]

Quoting Bapopik at AOL.COM:

> WOTY WEAPONS
>
>    "Weapons of mass destructions" is a bit old--not that that matters for
> WOTY competition.
>    I did a "weapons insp*" search in the online OED.  I was looking for
> "weapons inspection(s)" and "weapons inspector(s)."  There were no hits.
> These are not new, either, but perhaps deserve a look.

"Weapons inspector" may not exactly be new, but I don't recall it ever being
used within the arms control community. Instead we used "arms control
inspector" for the general term, and then the treaty or organization (e.g., INF
inspector, CWC inspector, UNSCOM inspector, IAEA inspector) when specificity
was required.

"UNMOVIC" is another one to consider for WOTY. Maybe too arcane though.

And there is "dirty bomb" (referring to a radiological weapon, not one that
creates fallout). That's fairly recent in vintage (1993 is what I've traced it
to), although it's already fading from memory after a brief flurry of scary
government announcements.

I would second Michael Quinion's suggestion of "regime change."

And of course there is "homeland security." (Did we consider this last year?)
Interesting and new use of "homeland" in a US political context and it's likely
to be with us for a while, as the a name of a bureaucratic entity if nothing
else.

--
Dave Wilton
dave at wilton.net
http://www.wilton.net/dave.htm